David McMurtrie Gregg

David McMurtrie Gregg (10 April 1833-7 August 1916) was a US Army Brigadier-General who served as a Union cavalry general during the American Civil War.

Biography
David McMurtrie Gregg was born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania in 1833, the grandson of congressman Andrew Gregg and the cousin of Governor Andrew Curtin. He graduated from West Point in 1855 and served in the US Army in New Mexico and Washington, leading 160 men against 1,000 Native Americans and managing a fighting retreat with minor casualties. In January 1862, during the American Civil War, he became a Colonel, and he led the 8th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment during the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Antietam. He was promoted to Brigadier-General just before the Battle of Fredericksburg, commanding a brigade in Alfred Pleasonton's division and taking over George Dashiell Bayard's brigade after Bayard's death. While he was repulsed by Confederate general and West Point classmate J.E.B. Stuart at the Battle of Brandy Station in 1863, he defeated him at the East Cavalry Field on 3 July 1863 during the Battle of Gettysburg. In early 1864, he was given command of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac during the Overland Campaign, and his division defeated Wade Hampton III's legion at the Battle of Haw's Shop. After Philip Sheridan departed for the Shenandoah Valley, Gregg was in command of the Union cavalry at the Siege of Petersburg, distinguishing himself at the Second Battle of Deep Bottom, the Second Battle of Ream's Station, and the Battle of Peebles' Farm. He resigned on 25 January 1865 due to his private fear of dying in battle, but he later came to regret missing the Appomattox Campaign In 1874, he briefly served as US Consul to Austria-Hungary in Prague, but he returned home when his wife became homesick. He later raised funds to preserve Valley Forge as a national shrine, served as Auditor General of Pennsylvania from 1891, and died in Reading in 1916, one of Pennsylvania's oldest Civil War veterans.